Attempts have been made to melt snow falling around a house and on a road surface with air as a heating medium. In particular, the inventors are continuously researching and developing technology for blowing air from a road surface and bringing the air into direct contact with snow fallen on a road surface or falling snow to melt the snow.
For example, Japanese Patent No. 4177423 proposes an air-blowing snow melting/drying system including a hollow roadbed body provided with a hollow section which is buried beneath a road surface and has a hole that lets air circulate through the hollow section and allows snowmelt water from the road surface to fall into the hollow section, an air-permeable structure provided on the hollow roadbed body to constitute the road surface, and air injection means for injecting air at 0° C. or higher into the hollow section of the hollow roadbed body, and the system is patented (Patent Literature 1). According to Patent Literature 1, the air-blowing snow melting/drying system can bring air blown from a road surface into direct contact with snow and evenly and uniformly melt snow on the road surface by the heat-retaining effect of the air-permeable structure brought about by passage of the air.